Perhaps you have heard of lung cancer, liver cancer and blood cancer, but you may not know much about the cancer that occurs in the mouth and you may not pay much attention to it. Professionally, we call it “oral cancer”. Usually, when ulcers or even lumps appear on the tongue, under the tongue (bottom of the mouth), cheeks or lips, people seldom think of it as “cancer”, but only when it hurts and affects eating, they go to the hospital and see that it is already in advanced stage. This will seriously affect the treatment effect. Let’s talk about the understanding of oral cancer. Oral cancer refers to malignant tumors occurring in and around the oral cavity, and the most common parts are tongue, cheek, gum, floor of mouth, palate, lip and jawbone, etc. The pathological classification of oral cancer is squamous cancer, followed by adenocarcinoma. There is no exact statistical information on the incidence of oral cancer in China. According to the statistics of cases treated in four cancer hospitals in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Guangzhou, oral cancer accounts for 2.7% of all malignant tumors. The causes of oral cancer are related to some bad hobbies, such as long-term smoking, alcohol consumption and betel nut chewing. Symptoms of oral cancer Oral cancer will cause discomfort to the tissues and organs involved in the oral cavity, some of them are painful like ulcers, some of them cause discomfort in eating and affect speech, and those occurring in the lower jaw will also cause numbness to the lower lip. Oral cancer is generally manifested in several forms: 1. deep and large ulcers, which do not heal for a long time, with irregular circumference, dirty central part and hard lumps when touched; 2. lesions with protruding surface and granular hyperplasia on the normal mucosa, and large lesions like cauliflower; 3. no obvious changes in mucosa and hard lumps when touched. Fifth, how to check the oral condition oral mucosa is generally pink, you can look in the mirror to check the mucosa of each part one by one, if there is a non-toothache pain or discomfort, to focus on checking the mucosa of the part. If the above-mentioned manifestations occur, it is necessary to seek medical examination in time. How to stage oral cancer Once a patient is diagnosed with cancer, patients and family members are often concerned about whether the cancer has reached an advanced stage or to what extent and whether there is salvation, and the same applies to oral cancer. Internationally, oral cancer is staged according to the size of tumor (T), whether there is metastasis in the lymph nodes of the neck (N) and whether there is metastasis in the whole body (M). Simply put, oral cancer with maximum diameter over 100px (T3 or above) is classified as advanced stage, or with lymph node metastasis in the neck is also considered advanced stage, if metastasis in lung, liver and other organs is present, it is also considered advanced stage, and squamous cell carcinoma generally has a lower rate of distant metastasis. This staging is based on a large number of case studies and is related to the healing of patients, and advanced stage does not mean untreatable. How to treat oral cancer Oral cancer treatment prefers surgical resection, and depending on the specific situation, there may be adjuvant radiotherapy or radiochemotherapy after surgery. Depending on the location of the disease, the size of the tumor and whether there is lymph node metastasis, different surgical plans are chosen. Tumors with small lesions can only be locally enlarged and resected, which can cause little damage and fast recovery. For tumors with large lesions, in addition to local enlargement resection and lymph node dissection in the neck, repair of the defective part is also required, which requires different flaps, muscle flaps, bone flaps and often fine vascular anastomosis. The need for postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy or radiochemotherapy is determined by local conditions and pathological examination of the postoperative lesion. In some patients, the tumor has invaded important tissues and cannot be removed or completely removed, so radiotherapy can only be used for treatment, while targeted drug therapy can be used to prolong the survival and reduce the symptoms. A few points to note: 1. Radiation therapy is not recommended for lesions that can be surgically removed. 2.There is no clear scientific basis to prove that various biological treatments and laser treatments advertised by newspapers can cure tumors. 3.There is no formal case study on traditional Chinese medicine treatment for oral cancer, so it should not be preferred. Overall, the 5-year survival rate of oral squamous cell carcinoma can reach 50%, the earlier the cancer is treated, the better the treatment effect, while the late cancer is less effective. Prevention of oral cancer: Quit long-term stimulation of tobacco and alcohol, and stop refusing betel nut. Early detection, early diagnosis and treatment. Scientific treatment. The World Health Organization classifies cancer as a chronic disease. Oral cancer has a certain recurrence and metastasis rate both locally and in lymph nodes after treatment, so it should be reviewed regularly, with the purpose of detecting recurrent lesions at the earliest time when they are the smallest, so that it is easy to treat them again. 80% of recurrence of squamous cell carcinoma occurs within 2 years after treatment, and most of recurrence occurs about 6 months after treatment, more than 3 years is generally considered as recurrence. Recurrence of glandular-derived carcinoma is 80% within 3 years after treatment, and recurrence can be seen 5 or 8 years after treatment.